Commentary

The nation tires of Wall Street ‘justice’

Commentary: A special prosecutor is needed

By

DavidWeidner

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — If you want to take the pulse of how many Americans feel about justice meted out to Wall Street, take a look at the more than 200 comments posted to MarketWatch’s story on the settlement between prosecutors and Angelo Mozilo, the former chief executive of Countrywide Financial.

“The average Joe Schmoe is paying the price financially while these CEOs get a slap on the wrist and a big check to retire.”

“People are losing their homes and dignity and jobs. We are finding out more and more every day that the money has been stolen from the average Joe and distributed to the high level executives.”

“You steal from people and you walk free by giving part of your loot to the police.”

“How are we supposed to believe that justice has been served? I’m not a lawyer but surely, this appears to be a big let-down for the victims of Countrywide’s bad practices.”

“When is Angelo going to get an orange jumpsuit to match his orange face?”

The frustration many of us feel toward regulators and prosecutors is a reaction to the pain many of us feel as we look at our depleted brokerage accounts, job prospects and the sinking value of the homes we bought in the bubble.

It seems the chiefs of the banks, ratings agencies, mortgage companies and hedge funds must be culpable. Someone has to go to jail for such gross neglect, incompetence or knowing disregard for the truth.

They haven’t, of course. Mozilo agreed to pay a $67.5 million fine that will be shared with Bank of America Corp.
BAC, +0.20%
shareholders. Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
GS, -0.14%
as an institution agreed to pay $550 million in a settlement, which seemed steep until many realized it was less than 5% of annual earnings, and, based on the company’s first quarter, 10.2 days of market earnings.

Instead, Mozilo walked away after cashing out $406 million in Countrywide stock, and Stanley O’Neal left Merrill Lynch & Co. in 2007 with $160 million in cash, stock and options. Ken Lewis left Bank of America with a $53 million pension. Lloyd Blankfein still holds the top executive post at Goldman. He made $9 million last year and was rated the best chief executive officer on Wall Street. Read Deal Journal report on Blankfein.

It’s enough to make one wonder what it takes, short of a Bernie Madoff-level Ponzi scheme, to run afoul of the law.

This black-is-white state of affairs is more than justice flipped on its head. It’s creating an environment where there is no deterrent — in fact, there’s incentive to push beyond the limits and reach for higher levels of success.

That’s why the government needs to come down harder on those who were ultimately responsible for their company’s actions. And the best way to do this would be to name a special prosecutor in the Justice Department charged with looking for those responsible for the catastrophe.

A chief executive who was paid hundreds of millions of dollars during the decade should carry a greater level of responsibility than those on the ground who actually pushed the buttons. For as much as it has been maligned, Sarbanes-Oxley required CEOs to sign off on the veracity of their company’s financial statements.

OK, let’s not kid ourselves. No special prosecutor is going to be named. These cases, the legal experts tell us, are difficult to make. Look at former Goldman mortgage bankers Daniel Sparks, Michael Swenson and Josh Birnbaum. They were calling a Goldman investment product a “sh*t deal” in emails, and not even they had to undergo anything rougher than a few hours of Congressional questioning.

These cases may be difficult, but they’re not impossible. And given the creation of a lawless marketplace where one economy-destroying decision can be made on top of another for short-term personal gains, something has to be done.

But nothing’s happening. Maybe its because of the money Wall Street lavishes on Congress. Perhaps it’s the close ties between the industry and the administration. It could be, as Nouriel Roubini said in the new documentary “Inside Job,” investigators are “afraid” of what they will find.

A special prosecutor, in a bid to make a name for himself or herself, might be immune to such pressure. It’s our best hope for outing the scoundrels and creating an industry where greed finally takes a backseat to the law.

If not, regulators can look back on a decade where the biggest crook they outed and put behind bars was Martha Stewart.

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